Founded in 2005, Youtube, a video-sharing website, is one of the most popular websites in the world-wide web. (Gill & et al, 2007)Millions of video clips are uploaded from its users around the globe, with a wide range of content, from personal statement, pranks, football match highlights to fashion shows, etc. Users can share their videos with their friends via social network such as Facebook and Twitter, and this can effectively increase the rate of view. (Burgess & et al, 2013)Apart from ordinary users, advertisers also notice that by promoting their products and services via Youtube, they can earn a much higher rate of view and thus increase the profit. Many big brands in various sectors of business make video clips to promote their products.
- ADIDAS
Adidas, a German sportswear compamy, formed partnership with YouTube creators KICKTV to set up a real time content on the 2014 World Cup for their YouTube channel. It came out as a huge success since the number of subscribers to Adidas’ YouTube channel tripled and the channel obtained 15 million visits to the brand website. During the World Cup viewers watched a combined 25,000 hours of episodes of The Dugout on Adidas’s YouTube channel.
- H&M with David Beckham
Before the 2014 Super Bowl Final kicked off, fans of David Beckham are given the opportunity to buy a wide range of underwear, manufactured by H&M, directly from their TV in a new interactive advertisement. H&M, clothes retailer from Sweden, gave viewers the opportunity to select from different versions of the star performing impressive stunts. Beckham tries to get to safety in his signature briefs in those ads. Voting began before the kick-off of the final and promoted nine pieces from the ex-footballer’s Spring range. The ad was followed by a Twitter campaign, and fans are able to get to choose whether he bares all in the ad or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKxTSqCVUo
- Head and shoulders
To mark Valentines Day 2014, Head & Shoulders, a shampoo brand, teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi in the Philippines to hold a hidden camera viral event, featuring young men on a blind date with a lady, who was played by a hired actress, and she had really bad dandruff. The campaign drew over 500,000 YouTube views. Agency Saatchi & Saatchi made the advertisement for the Procter and Gamble brand, and is encouraging people to share it with the Twitter hashtag #FlakerDate.
As most netizens are younger people, or even teenagers, it is a good way to attract potential customers by making advertisement via social networks or video-sharing websites, which can increase the opportunity for products to reach their target audience, and therefore increase the probability for their products/services to be bought. (Montgomery& et al, 2009)
References
Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2013). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John Wiley & Sons.
Gill, P., Arlitt, M., Li, Z., & Mahanti, A. (2007, October). Youtube traffic characterization: a view from the edge. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement (pp. 15-28). ACM.
Montgomery, K. C., & Chester, J. (2009). Interactive food and beverage marketing: targeting adolescents in the digital age. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(3), S18-S29.